Eleison

In addition to the excellent points already made, I will add that consenting to lovemaking and being forced to do it are radically different, and that's why she was so aggressively anti his request in that moment. He trampled on her choice, and completely turned her off. I appreciate that the drama did not make it romantic as many romances tend to do (she didn't melt and give in once he got all tender again). Even if the victim of this behavior realizes the behavior was mainly due to the heat of the moment, such behavior should not be rewarded.

I think handsome villains are actually perfect. That's the only realistic thing about dramas like this. 😉

Yeah, as much as XZ disappointed me in 17, I also appreciate watching characters make mistakes that they can (hopefully) grow from. Perfect characters are boring (yes, I'm a sucker for growth arcs! :)).

If only cliffs in Cdramas were as effective as the White Truck of Doom in Kdramas.

Yeah, she was angry by that point, and she refused to come with him because he got the order all wrong and asked her after he basically insulted her and kissed her against her will to assert his dominance 🤮.

We all know, and she knows, that she wants to be with him, but he crossed a line he shouldn't have crossed and she's not letting him back in because of that. Obviously they'll make up, but the dude let his jealousy get the better of him, and now he's paying for it.

It revealed that they have a long way to go in conflict resolution when one of them is angry.

Yeah, he did everything in the wrong order 😅(though a FORCED kiss should never be in any order, before or after).

Me, too. I wanted them to make up ASAP, but it was more important for her to tell him his behavior was unacceptable and not just melt when he tried to get all lovey dovey again and make ridiculous requests afterwards.

He was angry and jealous, lost his head, and now he has to suffer the consequences.

No reinforcing of male entitlement from Changyu! 👍 You don't get a pass just because you're beautiful and a man.

Okay, that fight in 17 kind of came out of nowhere... and also, come on, dude, how'd you think she was gonna respond? 😬🤦‍♀️

Yeah, perhaps! It's certainly crossed his mind, and if it was just her and not Ning, too, then he might be more inclined to to give it a shot.

Okay, so this is roughly what I've gathered also.

It's Qi Min's backstory that I can't make heads or tails of. 😅 I know technically they haven't told us much about him yet, but all they have told us I promptly got confused by. All I know is he's a beautiful bad egg and he was bad to Qian Qian at some point which is why she's terrified of him (though I think you haven't got there yet? Hopefully you don't mind me jumping ahead...).

And I have no faces for the names of the various princes I'm hearing about yet so I have nothing to ground their names with and to keep them straight. They seem to be of different generations, too? And then there's a deposed emperor and HIS children in the mix? And one of the princes apparently died with Xie Zheng's dad 16 years ago (I assume a good prince? But not the crown prince?)? And how did this weakling puppet emperor even get this far with all these scheming vultures hovering around? 😂

Like in New Life Begins, when the first night the ML and FL share a bed together is because the MLs little brother wants them both to tell him a bed time story and sleep in his bed with him. 😅 The leads are like, "Seriously, dude?" 😆

I think Xie Xheng's holding back in Episode 15 because he doesn't know if he'll ever be able to come back and commit to being with Changyu. I think he doesn't want to get even more entangled and string her along further when he can't promise her anything. I think he realizes that sleeping with her and then essentially dumping her to potentially never return and take responsibility for his love would be unfair to her.

She thinks his need to leave is temporary and may allow him to come back because she thinks he's just an escort, but he knows that it's much more complicated than that.

In his mind this is all ultimately to protect her (noble idiocy trope making its timely appearance to create more angst 😉😅).

👍

Thank you!

Where can I find that? 😅

Still need to watch today's episodes, and while I've been enjoying this very much so far (though these last few episodes maybe have felt a bit filler-ish (while sweet!)), I find the presentation of the political aspect, such as an introduction to the situation and players involved, who is who and how they're related to each other (past and present) pretty confusing and unclear so far.

I don't think it's unrealistic to expect the drama to make all of this clear without explanation from outside sources, right? Maybe they will explain/show more later, but so far I'm all kinds of confused. 😅 Is it just me?

But somehow it never seems to stick to the ground. 😅

Me too

Noble idiocy? That trope can be very frustrating. I've seen it done well, but it is hard to pull off. Hard to find a romance costume Cdrama without it (or some version of it), though.

In general, I think dramas give aggressive men way too much leeway because we know the girl usually likes him and she's just being coy or shy.

Here, they are showing us that Qian Qian is deeply uncomfortable and feels unsafe (and terrified of someone, probably Qi Min himself).

This is not how a good guy would make a woman feel.

So, I think I will be more upset if he turns out to be good (which I don't think is likely) because he does not treat her as a guy who truly loves her would.